AllFreeNovel
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Good enough.
On the way back north, thinking about it, he wound up stopping at the Mall of America, heading for an athletic wear store, specifically one that featured the University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers.
Wearing a hat and Covid mask, he scored.
That done, and with growing confidence, he drove the van to Minneapolis-St. Paul International, left it in the Gold Ramp. He took a cab back to St. Paul, got dropped at a small shopping center, and did the long walk home.
He’d scrubbed the steps clean. He shredded the paper towels he’d used and fed them through the garbage disposal, followed by fifteen minutes of hot water and heavy doses of all-purpose cleaner and a shot of Drano. All the crap Hinton had in the van he dropped at a homeless encampment along an I-94 frontage road.
Then he spent the night actively forgetting about Hinton. Had rehearsed and re-rehearsed the deposition of Hinton’s body, over and over and over again, until it all became boring. Became distant. Became something he’d only imagined. By morning, though he was tired, he was confident that if anyone asked about Hinton (or Bob Dahl), he’d be puzzled: Why no, I don’t know where he is. He should be here by now...
At nine-thirty, Doreen still hadn’t shown up. She didn’t have any critical files on her computer, other than calendars. He sat at herdesk and began pulling them up, and again made some selective deletions. No reason that the police, if they were to take the computers, needed to see entries like, “Noah to Antigua” or “Call Mickey about Noah’s Antigua tickets.”
He stopped to wonder if Hinton had told them about Antigua; and thought, well, if he had, the cops could ask. He didn’t have to volunteer the information.
At ten o’clock he went back to his own office and started calling up YouTube music videos, and then some golf instruction videos, and then looked at some TikTok jiggling-girl videos, and a little later, the door opened and looking through his windows, he saw two men walk in and look around, and spot him at his desk.
Police, he thought, and he was right.
Relax. Relax.
—
Lucas followed Virgilthrough the office door and said, quietly, “No Hinton.”
Virgil: “Must be Heath back there. Doreen’s gone, too.”
They could see Heath through the office window, looking out at them. “Goddamn Hinton better not be running,” Lucas said, keeping his voice low.
Virgil: “We need to poke this guy.”
As they walked toward the back of the office, Heath stood up, stepped into the hall and called, “Can I help you fellas?”
Virgil: “Are you Noah Heath?”
“I am.”
Virgil held up his BCA ID, identified himself and Lucas, and said, “We talked to one of your employees last night, Darrell Hinton.”
Heath looked nonplussed. “Hinton? I’ve only got two employees...”
“Bob Dahl,” Virgil said. “His real name is Darrell Hinton.”
“Hinton?”
Lucas: “You didn’t know that?”
Heath was offended: “I did not. Where is he? He should have been here an hour ago. Where’s Doreen?”
As Virgil and Lucas got closer, they didn’t slow down, and Heath retreated into his office. Lucas and Virgil followed him in, without asking, and took the two guest chairs across Heath’s desk. Heath sat down and asked, “What has he done?”
Virgil: “Hinton told us about your Big Grin scam, the fake surgeons, which we’re gonna have to talk to you about, sooner or later. Right now, we want to know whether you murdered Alex Sand and his sons.”
Virgil had seen the phenomenon, once or twice, as the blood in Heath’s face seemed to drain away, leaving him as white as printer paper. He sputtered, “What? What? I never...”
Virgil leaned forward and touched Heath’s desk and said, “Of the two of us, I’m the polite one. I gotta tell you politely, a guy like you, stealing from charity money, that’s about as low as it gets. You’re a dirtbag and we’re gonna hang you out to dry. But right now, we need to know where Hinton is. You didn’t kill him, too, did you?”
Heath’s eyelids fluttered and his hand clutched his chest, then he pushed back from his desk and stood up and shouted at them, “I don’t know where he is. I didn’t kill... I want you out of here. I’m calling my attorney—my civil attorney, the one that’s going to drag the two of you into court and get every dime you ever earned.Throwing accusations, you’re crazy... I’m a serious man in this town...”
